Thursday, March 04, 2010

Lt. Col. Donald A. Cornell 1944-2008

Lt. Col. Donald A. Cornell (USAF, Retired)was born 20 December 1944 in Detroit, Michigan.He retired from the Air Force after serving 20 years, including two tours in Vietnam and work as a test pilot at Edwards Air Force Base, California, and Area 51, Nevada.

A graduate of USAF Test Pilot School Class 78B at Edwards in 1978, Cornell was one of the early test pilots for the Lockheed F-117A Nighthawk and Northrop TACIT BLUE technology demonstrator - both at the Air Force Flight Test Center's Detachment 3 at Area 51. He was also involved with the AGM-137 Tri-Service Standoff Attack Missile project, a spinoff of TACIT BLUE. After retiring from the Air Force, he was employed as a pilot and operations officer with EG&G, Special Projects, in Las Vegas. Cornell was a member of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots.